Pomona to celebrate its difficult birth as the Inland Valley's first city

That's the quasquicentennial, in case you're thinking of ordering a cake (and you'll need a big one to get all those letters on it.)

These are difficult financial times for the city, and apparently there's no plans for a big celebration. A cake may be the best we can expect on Jan. 6.

It was on that date in 1888 that Pomona basked in the glory of becoming the Inland Valley's first city and fifth in Los Angeles County.

In those days, Pomona was still a very backroads place badly in need of improvements - lack of sewers was the No. 1 concern. There was no shortage of saloons however, and their owners feared cityhood might just bring too much civility to what had been a pretty wide-open town.

But despite a few shortcomings, there were good feelings about Pomona's future, with its leaders believing cityhood was the way to make it thrive.

"Pomona has outgrown her infant clothes," wrote the Pomona Progress on Dec. 29, 1887, "and now asks the chance . . . to change her attire and say to the world: `This is a city, and the best inland city in Southern California."'

It was in 1884 that the first suggestion of cityhood appeared, but things never really got serious until attorney Len Claiborne submitted an incorporation petition with 42 signatures at a meeting downtown on Nov. 27, 1886.

"The sanitary conditions of Pomona demand it," Charles Wolfe spoke at the meeting as reported by the Progress of Dec. 2, 1886. "The back alleys are horrible. Many cases of typhoid fever have been caused by the cesspools. Incorporate and Pomona will be a healthy town."

W.O. Smith of the Pomona Land and Water Co. suggested that might not be true, likening cityhood to marriage.

"Incorporation is something like matrimony; easy enough to get into, but sometimes troublesome to get out of."

The area proposed at that time was just 640 acres and excluded several adjacent developed tracts. Ironically, its small size was blamed when cityhood was defeated by voters, 110-72, on March 12, 1887.

At that time, many said they opposed the measure solely because Pomona would have had sixth-class status given its small population. A fifth-class city had many more powers but required at least 3,000 residents, which was more than the original boundaries contained.

But the idea of cityhood didn't die with that first vote. It simmered during the summer of 1887 and caught fire again at a community meeting on Sept. 12.

The meeting attracted 125 men who drew plans for a larger city this time - stopping short of taking in today's Claremont and La Verne, which some had proposed.

The city was to be split into five wards, each with an member of the Board of Trustees (the early city council).

"From all that can be gleaned on the street the action of the meeting is satisfactory in every respect," beamed the Progress of Sept. 15.

But not so fast.

When the cityhood petition with 150 signatures was sent to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in November 1887, it was inexplicably turned down. The rejection was made all the more shocking by the opposition on the board of one of Pomona's own, William T. "Tooch" Martin.

Martin, a colorful character who once lived as a hermit in the foothills above Claremont, delayed the Pomona petition for reasons he never really made clear.

Pomona's leaders were outraged by the snub.

"It was certainly a strange and stupid thing on the part of the Board of Supervisors knowing (Martin) to be opposed to incorporation as petitioned for, to leave the matter so largely in his hands," fumed the Progress Nov. 17.

The newspaper, which had backed Martin's election, vowed never to do that again.

However in subsequent days, Martin changed his tune, and a vote on cityhood was finally scheduled on Dec. 31.

On Dec. 17, a community meeting nominated a slate of candidates from each ward on the Board of Trustees and Board of Education.

That meeting proved interesting, especially in the caucus of Fourth Ward men who kept nominating people who didn't want to serve.

Franklin Cogswell, who steadfastly said he didn't want to be a candidate, was immediately nominated. When he refused again, he was nominated for the school board, which he also turned down.

It was a similar case for S.S. Simmons who was also nominated and refused office.

Finally, the Fourth Ward men did the only smart thing left to them - they nominated someone not at the meeting, O.J. Brown.

Later, Brown must have gotten wind of what happened and also declined. Cogswell, of all people, finally agreed to have his name on the ballot.

The men of Pomona (this was 24 years before California women got the vote) went to the polls on the 31st and approved cityhood by 415 to 101.

The results were certified by the Board of Supervisors which sent them to the Secretary of State's Office where paperwork was filed on Jan. 6, Pomona actual birth date.

On Jan. 10, the new Board of Trustees got a telegram from Sacramento with the good news and met for the first time that day. Charles French was elected the first president, or mayor, of the city. And the reluctant candidate Cogswell was sworn in to represent the Fourth Ward.

And then it was time for the real work to began. And almost 125 years later, it still hasn't gotten any easier.